Beavering away in Ponta Delgarda

Ticketeeboo
Sue & Alan
Sat 21 Jun 2014 20:44
Annie & Mike off exploring the island before I entered free-space this morning. My first thoughts are to get the washing machine underway because there's a lorra washing to go through it. To start with, Annie & Mike left some of their clothes and the set of bed sheets Mike's been using in the pullman berth, plus some of my clothes, towels and dish cloths - wash No.1 on.  An hour and three quarters later next wash goes on, my top bed sheet and the matress cover off my side of our bed. An hour and three quarters after that, wash No.3  goes on - bottom bed sheet plus matress cover off Sue's side of our bed.  An hour and half later wash No.4 goes on - quilted matress cover/under sheet off our bed plus pillow cases and quilted pillow inner covers.  Now that's a lorra washing to hang out on the deck on one fine day! Fortunately it's been a glorious day, light winds and lots sunshine. Perfect drying weather - that's why I thought I would take advantage and have the bed sparklingly clean ready for Tuesday!!! Now here's the good bit. When putting the big quilted cover on the line, almost last item of the last wash, it's an awkward thing and the wind blew at the wrong moment and my glasses came off and went 'splosh' in the water. Oops! Too late to do anything to salvage the situation promptly. I just watched as my spectacles looked back at me gradually going deeper and deeper until out of sight. I'm now thinking it's about 7 - 8 m deep so I'm now gonna have to get my dive gear on and go for a swim. In meantime during last wash I'd started another job - sorting a problem with our AIS transmitter. I had got to the point where I'd proven the transmitter faulty and was fitting our spare when I stopped to put wash No.4 on the line! I'm just about to go swimming when Annie & Mike returned. This was very timely because it's always best to have someone to help when SCUBA diving. My first dive was like swimming in soup. Totally lost all sense of direction and had to come back-up to see where I was. Two boats further down from Ticketeeboo was not surprising. I asked Mike to put a line in the water from our deck where my glasses entered the water and I gave him one of my weights to go on end to help it sink better.  Dive No.2 was short and unsuccessful because I needed the weight, which was now on the end of the line! Mike changed the weight for our RIB anchor and I got the weight back. On dive No.3 I slowly followed the line to the bottom and there was my glasses, just inches from our RIB anchor. Success and sorted! Glasses recovered, all washing dry, our bed remade clean & fresh and the day's a good'n, even if my ears continue to feel like they belong in a fish tank!.
Whilst our bed was in pieces I also took the opportunity to clean out & vacuum the storage spaces underneath and make a new list of the spare parts, which I keep there. I also sprayed some 'bug killer' to make sure nothing lives beneath us when we're sleeping! In between all that I made myself a rather nice bacon, egg & chips for lunch, which was rather tasty too! Annie made us a tasty brocolli taglatelli for evening meal. They say the Island is beautiful and have a car to go exploring again tomorrow. They're now away to the local cafe to catch up on their wi-fi and I'm enjoying a G&T before bed........... which will be very soon!
More boat jobs tomorrow so that Ticketeeboo might look spick & span for when the Queen arrives after just 3 more sleeps.